Miraj Hussain remembers the moments when her mother admonished her for being too stubborn. She was always told that “good girls were created to obey.” In her native land of Pakistan, this was a lie that almost everyone believed. But Miraj couldn’t bear living the lie.

As she and her brother Asad grew up in their father’s stifling household, they became more and more disillusioned with Sadiq Hussain’s religious hypocrisy and favoritism toward their older brother, Adam. While Miraj couldn’t keep her opinions to herself, Asad suffered from secrets of his own. He could never tell his traditional father and brother that he was gay. There was no life for him in Pakistan.

Now the two have traveled far from their homeland to start new lives in the United States, but it isn’t as easy as they dreamed it would be. The Hussain siblings face new prejudices, bigotry, and hypocrisy in their adopted country. As they navigate their way through an unwelcoming society, they must examine what they truly want in their lives. Along the way, they will discover that the obstacles to their happiness don’t just lie within Pakistani and American cultural conventions but within themselves.

It is 1789, and three young provincials have come to Paris to make their way. Georges-Jacques Danton, an ambitious young lawyer, is energetic, pragmatic, debt-ridden--and hugely but erotically ugly. Maximilien Robespierre, also a lawyer, is slight, diligent, and terrified of violence. His dearest friend, Camille Desmoulins, is a conspirator and pamphleteer of genius. A charming gadfly, erratic and untrustworthy, bisexual and beautiful, Camille is obsessed by one woman and engaged to marry another, her daughter. In the swells of revolution, they each taste the addictive delights of power, and the price that must be paid for it.

Inspired by mostly true events, these 10 Palpable Parables are a tongue-and-cheek retelling of frustration, joy, heartache and recovery from a man with a simple dream to make a difference in the world - even when the odds were against him. Oh, and you'll never think of barfing the same way again.

Danny Parker, a pilot wounded in the Great War, returns home to Long Beach, California, in 1919 hoping to reconcile with his former girlfriend, Joyce Villareal, who is now a silent movie star. But Joyce has disappeared.

Danny and Joyce were best friends since first grade. As juniors in high school their friendship became romantic. But just before graduation, Danny surprised Joyce by announcing he planned to study for the priesthood. Angry and hurt, she broke up with him and moved to Hollywood to become an actress at Paramount. Three years later, he left the seminary and enlisted in the Marines, eventually becoming one of the first Marine aviators.

He crashes in France and barely survives a horrendous battle. Finally home in Long Beach, he has no desire to return to the seminary or the service. His physical wounds have healed but not the emotional trauma of death and destruction from so many months of combat. His only plan is to resume a relationship with Joyce, if she'll have him. Bu first he has to find her.

Danny searches her bungalow near Griffith Park, finding a hidden diary which mentions dates with three men, whom she refers to as the Comedian, the Daredevil, and the Producer. He visits Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, where Joyce has been filming Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with John Barrymore. Paramount assigns a detective to the case. The Los Angeles Police Department is strangely unconcerned.

The search for Joyce has given Danny's life meaning again. He enlists the help of the stunt pilot who taught him to fly, an old priest scarred by the Indian Wars, a police chief who prefers justice to politics, and a big tent evangelist who preaches women's rights. Clues lead to a former Barnum & Bailey showman who owns hundreds of Nickelodeon theaters and is now running for mayor of Los Angeles.

Arkansas Summer is a powerful novel about love and racial terror in the Jim Crow South.It's 1955, and Catherine has joined her father in Arkansas after her grandfather's death. She's a California college student, and it's her first visit to her grandparents' farm since the summer she was nine. When she is reunited with Jimmy, whom she'd played with as a child, the two are immediately drawn to one another. They understand the dangers of their interracial attraction, but could never have imagined the far-reaching consequences of their untimely love.

Arkansas Summer takes readers on an emotional journey of passion and suspense, all the while shining a spotlight on the twisted ethos and violence of the segregated South.

The Cutaway draws you into the tangled world of corruption and cover-up as a young television producer investigates the disappearance of a beautiful Georgetown lawyer in this stunning psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn.When brilliant TV news producer Virginia Knightly receives a disturbing “MISSING” notice on her desk related to the disappearance of a beautiful young attorney, she can’t seem to shake the image from her head. Despite skepticism from her colleagues, Knightly suspects this ambitious young lawyer may be at the heart of something far more sinister, especially since she was last seen leaving an upscale restaurant after a domestic dispute. Yet, as the only woman of power at her station, Knightly quickly finds herself investigating on her own.Risking her career, her life, and perhaps even her own sanity, Knightly dives deep into the dark underbelly of Washington, DC business and politics in an investigation that will drag her mercilessly through the inextricable webs of corruption that bind the press, the police, and politics in our nation’s capital.Harkening to dark thrillers such as Gone Girl, Luckiest Girl Alive, and Big Little Lies, The Cutaway is a striking debut that will haunt you long after you reach the last page.